From Philosophy to Politics(I)——The Debate about"Ancient and Modern,China and the West"and Political Maturity

Gan Yang,the chief editor ofCulture:China and Worldpopular in the 1980s,has been consistently concerned with the question——the train of thoughts on culture.From this perspective ofculture,this paper focuses on his thought on two fronts:those unchanged and changed.What remains changeless in that he puts culture in the framework ofancient and modern,China and the westdebate.The most fundamental alteration is the change from philosophy to politics.The latter refers to the realistic political world.Such an understanding of politics is related to particularism that questions global universalism.It,in the meantime,deepens his comprehension of the debate aboutancient and modern,China and the west.Therefore,he puts forward the theory ofuniting three traditionsand sorts order for socialism,cultural conservatism and liberalism.And he puts socialism ahead of cultural conservatism,with liberalism at the bottom of the list.Given Gan Yang's special position in the realm of thought in China,this paper attempts to comprehend the changes that took place in Chinese intellectual circle over the last 30years,as well as the inherent hisorical impetus behind them.Besides,this paper also tries to probe into the fact that Chinese intellectuals return to the political arena and shows political maturity in the real sense.